I remember Bill Wirtz, Stevenson's partner, was
there, and he was suddenly the Assistant
Secretary of Labor, which struck me as
being very distinguished considering
that I had never thought of him as being
at all ambitious politically, but just a
charming and very studious man.

Q:

Was it the Stevenson connection that produced
this?

Lasker:

Probably, but he had been a labor negotiator in
the Middlewest and, evidently, I hadn't
understood how important he was.

Q:

And this is where Goldberg had known of his
work.

Lasker:

No, I think it was through Shriver and Bill
Blair. Probably Wirtz knew Shriver well,
and Shriver, at this time, was making
the appointments in such jobs as Kennedy
had not decided on himself. Shriver had
enormous influence; all appointments
were taken up with him. I took up
numerous things that I wanted people to
be appointed to, including that I
thought it would be a good idea for him
to be the Secretary of HEW.